Gay Becker examines the various ways individuals deal with disorder and chaos brought on by unexpected events. The author, who is Professor of Medical Anthropology and Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, interviewed people who have been upended by a stroke, infertility, late-life transitions, midlife change, or chronic illness. Becker is interested in "the ways in which people strive to create order out of chaos and thereby render life meaningful." In the course of her investigations, she discovered that distress is a major factor in the way life stories or narratives are told in the United States.
Individuals who experience suffering must not only go through pain and confusion, they must come to terms with the powerful cultural ideology of rational determinism. This emphasis on the ability of will power alone to influence normalcy colors people's attitudes toward illness, old age, blood ties, and the chaos resulting from change. Becker makes it quite clear that the cultural shibboleth that life will be orderly and predictable is an illusion. More and more people experiencing disruption are finding fresh paths to meaning and personal transformation in these crises.